- Arm I: Patients undergo radiotherapy daily 5 days a week for 5 weeks. Patients receive fluorouracil IV continuously on days 1-4 and 29-32 and cisplatin IV on days 1 or 2 and 29 or 30 (or a lower dose on days 1-5 and 29-33). Within 4-8 weeks after completion of radio-chemotherapy, patients undergo surgical resection.

- Arm II: Patients undergo surgical resection. Patients are followed every 4 months for 2 years, every 6 months for 3 years, and then annually thereafter.

PROJECTED ACCRUAL: A total of 380 patients (190 per treatment arm) will be accrued for this study within 3 years.

Inclusion Criteria

DISEASE CHARACTERISTICS:

- Diagnosis of stage I or II thoracic esophageal cancer

- Tumor no greater than 3 cm with no invasion of mediastinal structures with or without extension to the lymph nodes (T1-2, N0-1, M0) OR

- Tumor greater than 3 cm with no invasion of mediastinal structures and no adenopathy greater than 1 cm (T3, N0, M0)

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